Current:Home > ScamsFederal judge is skeptical about taking away South Carolina governor’s clemency power -InvestTomorrow
Federal judge is skeptical about taking away South Carolina governor’s clemency power
View
Date:2025-04-13 04:28:29
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A federal judge appears unlikely to grant the request of a South Carolina inmate scheduled to be executed in just over three weeks to take away the power of granting him clemency from the governor.
Richard Moore’s lawyers said Gov. Henry McMaster can’t fairly decide whether to reduce his death sentence to life in prison because he was a state attorney general who oversaw prosecutors fighting Moore’s appeals and McMaster told reporters he had no intention of commuting a sentence in 2022 when an execution date was set for Moore and then canceled. They want the judge to instead give clemency power to a parole board, the lieutenant governor or someone else they believe is more likely to be impartial.
But Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said she is averse to take away the constitutionally given right to the governor alone to decide clemency in South Carolina and thinks McMaster will carefully consider Moore’s petition when it is filed. Moore’s execution is scheduled for Nov. 1.
Moore “has access to the process. He just doesn’t think the person who has to exercise the process is going to be favorable to him,” Lewis said at a hearing Tuesday.
She suggested she might rule from the bench at Tuesday’s hearing, but said she would take time to issue a written order because of the case’s importance to Moore, the governor and the law.
“Ever since this came to my desk, it is all I have thought about,” Lewis said.
Moore, 59, is facing the death penalty for the September 1999 shooting of store clerk James Mahoney. Moore went into the Spartanburg County store unarmed to rob it, and the two ended up in a shootout after Moore was able to take one of Mahoney’s guns. Moore was wounded in the arm, while Mahoney died from a bullet to the chest.
State law gives Moore until Friday to decide between dying by lethal injection, a firing squad or the electric chair. His execution would mark the second in South Carolina after a 13-year pause because of the state not being able to obtain a drug needed for lethal injection.
No South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency in the modern era of the death penalty. McMaster has said he decides each case on its merits after a thorough review.
Lewis asked McMaster’s lawyers if the governor would considered making a sworn statement he would consider Moore’s clemency petition fairly. They said they would prefer not to because the power is exclusively given to the executive branch, but if the judge insisted, the governor would do it.
McMaster told reporters outside the Statehouse about 30 minutes after the hearing that he has not made up his mind. He said he will announce his decision minutes before Moore’s execution is set to begin and after he has been told all appeals are exhausted, as is tradition in South Carolina.
“My intention is to study the facts, to understand the facts, to understand whatever is available about the matter and then make a very considered opinion,” McMaster said.
Moore’s lawyers have said he is an ideal candidate for ending up with a life sentence because he is a mentor for his fellow inmates.
“Over the past 20 years, Moore has worked to make up for his tragic mistakes by being a loving and supportive father, grandfather, and friend. He has an exemplary prison record,” they wrote.
veryGood! (583)
Related
- 51-year-old Andy Macdonald puts on Tony Hawk-approved Olympic skateboard showing
- U.S. sprinter McKenzie Long runs from grief toward Olympic dream
- Rachel Lindsay’s Ex Bryan Abasolo Details Their “Tough” Fertility Journey
- Watchdog who criticized NYPD’s handling of officer discipline resigns
- From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
- Attorneys for state of Utah ask parole board to keep death sentence for man convicted in 1998 murder
- Horoscopes Today, July 21, 2024
- Psst! Banana Republic’s Summer Sale Is Full of Cute Workwear up to 60% Off, Plus 20% off Select Styles
- Realtor group picks top 10 housing hot spots for 2025: Did your city make the list?
- Billion-dollar Mitsubishi chemical plant economically questionable, energy group says
Ranking
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- Get your hands on Deadpool's 'buns of steel' with new Xbox controller featuring 'cheeky' grip
- ‘We were built for this moment': Black women rally around Kamala Harris
- Beach Volleyball’s Miles Evans Reveals What He Eats in a Day Ahead of Paris Olympics
- 'No Good Deed': Who's the killer in the Netflix comedy? And will there be a Season 2?
- Hiker dies at Utah state park after high temperatures, running out of water
- Police kill armed man outside of New Hampshire home after standoff, authorities say
- Kamala Harris' stance on marijuana has certainly evolved. Here's what to know.
Recommendation
Residents in Alaska capital clean up swamped homes after an ice dam burst and unleashed a flood
Search called off for small airplane that went missing in fog and rain over southeast Alaska
Paris Olympics: LeBron James to Serve as Flagbearer for Team USA at Opening Ceremony
Delta cancels hundreds more flights as fallout from CrowdStrike outage persists
A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
Paris Olympics: LeBron James to Serve as Flagbearer for Team USA at Opening Ceremony
Top Nordstrom Anniversary Sale 2024 Deals Under $50: Get a Pearl Necklace for $35 & More Up to 50% Off
Who can challenge U.S. men's basketball at Paris Olympics? Power rankings for all 12 teams